Guide: Creating a VPN With LogMeIn Hamachi

One of the many things I have had on my To Do List for a while now is to set up a Virtual Private Network (VPN) for my home network. For those who don’t know a VPN is a network that uses a public telecommunication infrastructure, such as the Internet, to provide remote offices or individual users with secure access to their organization’s network. There are three reasons in particular why I wanted to set up a VPN:

The ability to easily back up files from my Windows Home Server to my Dad’s EX495, providing me additional data protection

When traveling I can access my home network from my Laptop just as if I was at home. This particularly makes things easier for me as I do some of my writing and/or software testing on my laptop, and having direct access to all my files on my WHS facilitates the process. Prior to setting up the VPN I was either remoting in to my desktop PC at home or constantly downloading files via my remote website.

The ability to access the WHS console on my laptop while traveling, as well as allowing for the daily backup

Since I already use LogMeIn to remote in to my PCs/Windows Home Server, I thought this would be a great opportunity to test out their VPN product called Hamachi. Since everything is web based and goes through LogMeIn’s servers, there is no need for any sort of networking expertise or having to mess around with any PC setting. With this comes a couple of caveats that I will mention at the end of this post. Hamachi is free for personal use (up to 16 client PCs), and a paid commercial version is available as well. Let’s take a look at the steps needed to install Hamachi and see if I was successful in implementing my 3 items above. The goal will be to successfully set up a VPN consisting of my Windows 7 x64 laptop (from work), my Windows Home Server (at my house), and my Dad’s EX495 (his house).

Setup:

1. Set up a free account with LogMeIn

2. With the account set up, log in and click on “My Networks” on the left hand side. You will have an option to start adding clients or start creating a network. I decided to start by adding clients.

3.When you go to add a client you are given the choice to install Hamachi on the PC you are currently working on or to send a notification to another PC that you want Hamachi installed on. I installed on the machine I was working on (my Windows Home Server)

4. Next simply click on the “Install LogMeIn Hamachi” button. You will then be prompted to go through the typical software installation process which shouldn’t require more then a few clicks of the mouse.

5. With Hamachi now installed, go back into your LogMeIn account and under My Networks you should now see the PC that was just added

6. At this point you can either add more clients or set up your VPN. The process is the same for adding additional clients, so let’s move on to setting up the VPN by clicking on “Add Networks”. There will be a choice of three different networks that can be set up:

Gateway virtual networking. Provide remote users with secure access to your private network/LAN, including the resources on it, from a centralized LogMeIn Hamachi² gateway, without modifying firewalls or network routers.

Mesh networking. Connect all of your network clients to each other. Quickly and easily create a simple, virtual, mesh network that allows remote machines to directly connect to each other, thereby giving users basic network access to all the network resources they need.

Since I want to connect all my PCs to each other I decided to go with the Mesh network.

7. Next step is to assign security to the VPN for any clients that want to join. You can assign a network password that a client must enter in to join the VPN. Instead of doing this I set it so any join requests must be approved by me.

8. The final step is to select which client PCs you want added to the network

9. Now go onto one of the PCs and run Hamachi. A small program should appear which shows the newly created VPN and the client PCs that are assigned. Each client PC will have a colored circle next to it. The various colors and what they mean are:

A gray indicator means that the peer is offline and there is no connectivity with it.

A blinking green indicator means that the peer is online and Hamachi2 is working to establish a connection. It typically takes under a second to establish the tunnel, but sometimes it may take up to few minutes.

A solid green indicator means that you have direct connection with a peer.

A cyan indicator means that Hamachi2 was not able to establish direct connection and that you are connected to a peer via a relay server.

That is it, you now have your own private VPN!

Tests:

As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, there were three objectives I was looking to meet by setting up the VPN. Let’s see if Hamachi delivers:

Test 2 -Ability to access my Windows Home Server shared folders from my laptop at work just as if I was connected to my network at home – Success

Test 3 -Ability to access the WHS Console from my laptop at work as well as initiate a PC backup – Success

Final Thoughts:

Overall I was very impressed at how easy it was to set up a VPN with Hamachi (It took me approximately 10 minutes) and as my test results show I was able to accomplish exactly what I was looking for.

There are two caveats though that is worth mentioning. The first caveat is that with the free Hamachi version speeds are somewhat slower then with the commerical (paid) Hamachi. I don’t know what the exact difference is, but from discussions with LogMeIn support the non-commercial relay tunnel has a ping time averaging between 100-1000 ms, whereas a commercial (paid) license gives a ping time of around 40-60 ms. This translates to a significant improvement in speed as the lower the ping time, the better the connection. Although general browsing of my files and transfers of smaller data wasn’t terribly slow, I would never consider trying to transfer/backup large amounts of data over Hamachi (free). Also, it should be understood that transfer speeds will also be dependent on the ISP service provided to each PC connected to the VPN.

The second caveat is that since the VPN is going through LogMeIn’s server, your data is being exposed to LogMeIn. Now obviously the assumption is that LogMeIn is in no way viewing your data, but some people may feel uneasy about this. I only keep hard copy documents about the truth behind who killed JFK and the Earth’s first contact with human civilization, so this is not a concern to me.

If you are looking to set up a VPN and want a simple solution, I highly recommend giving LogMeIn Hamachi a try.

Hi, my name is Damian, and I'm tech gadget addict! Although I always had some interest in technology, it wasn't until I got my EX470 and more importantly found Mediasmartserver.net, that my interest became an addiction. My goal, aside from world domination and to see the Mets/Broncos win another championship, is to set up the perfect digital home where all my media is available at the click of a button. When I am not writing for Mediasmartserver.net you can find me over at my blog at http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com or follow me on twitter

Thanks for this guide. The goals you’ve listed are identical to what I want to set up before an upcoming overseas trip.

I toyed around with Hamachi a few years ago (before they were acquired by LogMeIn), but it looks like they have changed a bit since then. Before, one computer was required to be the ‘master’, and if it was turned off, the rest of the network was disabled. I don’t think there were options then for Mesh or Hub-and-Spoke networks. So when you’ve set up a Mesh network, is any one computer considered a ‘master’ that must be powered on, or is the network independent of any individual computers?

Also, when you connect to Hamachi’s virtual network, are you isolated from your physical LAN? For example, if I were connecting to Hamachi from outside my home network (like an unsecured cafe), will all my internet traffic be tunneled back through my home network? Or is this perhaps a Gateway setup?

Using the Mesh network there is no “Master” computer, so no one computer needs to be powered on (unless of course you want to access that computer).

You can read the Security Whitepaper under the Documents tab to read more about the security protocols (https://secure.logmein.com/US/support/hamachi2/). They state as a feature – Secure communications – Encrypted tunneling across public and private networks, so I assume you are isolated from your physical LAN.

If you are at an unsecured cafe please do not send me an email telling me that a long lost relative just died and you need my help (i.e. money) in acquiring their estate!!!

Yes, assuming your media files in Media Center are on one of the PCs on your VPN.

For example, all my media is stored on my WHS. I can access those files on my Laptop at work just as if I was at home using the VPN.

The only issue though will be bandwidth, you may not get enough from the VPN to sufficiently stream (it will depend on upload/download speed of your ISP on both sides as well as the speed that Hamachi allows through)

I use Hamachi as well. I note no real issues doing backups of my laptops from the road, although they take about twice as long as when at home. I redid my web site and loaded up Gallery from my hotel using the connection and it worked like a charm. If you are considering implementing a VPN with your MSS, I can heartily recommend Hamachi. Just works, and it’s free.

Does this mean that I can access my WHS without all the port forwarding problems and firewall issues that I have? My ISP blocks ports 80 and 443 and the port forwarding is unpredictable. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.
Thanks for the easy to understand writeup.

I have never had to mess around with the port forward settings to get LogMeIn to work, but to be honest I set up my port forward settings a while ago for my WHS site. Unless someone can answer definitely I may try to disable my port forwarding at work tomorrow and see if I can still access with LogMeIn

Great write up Damian as usual! This one didn’t get me lost in the Bit Streaming thing Actually a month ago I was exposed to that LogMeIn service when I requested assistance to troubleshoot the Video Camera Servers at work. The company that installed it walked me through the setup process which took longer for me to undestand what he was saying then to actually do it. So I know its very simple to setup and doesn’t take very long.

After setting it up I didn’t even give it a second thought until I read this. I did want to transfer data to the servers I placed at work to have some additonal backups and visa versa but the real thing is I can gain access to the Video System at work for remote monitoring until they allow the ISP to come in and open up the network for me to set up port forwarding again but this seems like a better alternative since it would give me access to the video logs where the software used connect to the Video Server do not allow me to review the video logs.

Now I am very excited about this because it solves a problem I have been fighting to resolve for months now because they are not sure they want to pay the current ISP to open up the network for me as they may change the ISP so I am stuck not being able to monitor my Factory Operation from home anymore.

Ok ok enough of the rambling. If I set this up can I extend the access to say multiple people?

No you did not throw me off at all with the media streaming part at all. Since it would provide access to the desktop and other things it will provide the access to whats also running on the server so I do believe I will be able to see the live video feeds. I am about to head to work to see if I can set this up so I will know more in a bit. Only I am going to sneek in the back door so my people do not see me otherwise they will bother me with things I do not wish to deal with. Hey thats why the can call me on the phone for so wish me luck……

Well I played with both LogMeIn and Hamachi last night configuring it to work with two clients at home, 2 video camera servers, 1 WHS v1 and my Vail Test Server at work. Ya ya I decided to see what I could do with Vail and right now I can only say is LogMeIn is working but I have yet to do the Hamanchi setup with it.

So the real interest is with the Video Servers and for the most part it works but the live video only gives me a pink screen but I can see which cameras are active and which ones are not. Ok so not so good. But what I discovered was I can access the video logs and review them perfectly which the remote access software for the system does not allow. So its an improvement as far as I am concerned.

While I have not yet gotten as far as Damian has I am certain over the next day or two I will be right up there after I read the information provided by LogMeIN but for the most part I am very happy with what have seen thus far.

I still have much to learn and as I learn more on how to use this to my fullest advantage I know it will a great tool for me to use.

Thanks for sharing. The great thing is the version we are using is the free version, so really there is nothing to lose.

I wonder if the pink screen you get is a bandwidth issue, this is with remoting in with LogMeIn, correct? I have found that the bandwidth doesn’t play well with trying to play any sort of videos over LogMeIn, so maybe that is your issue. Really, LogMeIn works great so I can rdp into my PC, as well as family members for troubleshooting. It also comes in handy when port forwarding may go down (so I cannot access my WHS remotely from my website) but I can still access over LogMeIn. Hamachi has been working great so I can access my files just as if I am on the network instead of constantly downloading files from my site.

Mixed Success
I tried setting up a Mesh network in a similar fashion. From the laptop, I can access the folders on my WHS. This is a major step forward. The WHS can’t access the laptop. No other connection provides results.
When I Ping the connection, I get a time out. And yet, Hamachi shows the connection button as Green in its window. I can Chat between the PCs using Hamachi, and yet I cannot browse the folders.
I’ve submnit a question to LogMe In. Will update when I hear back.
Damian, how did you get to the WHS remote desktop? Are there more options to set?
Thanks
David

Well its not about Hamachi but the LogMeIn software has allowed me to now view live video footage and access the video logs on the camera system at work. Actually it works better then the Remote Access Software provided with the camera system itself.

I have installed LOGMEIN and HAMANCHIN on two offsite servers one is an EX470 and the other is a DIY Server running Vail and its working well I have to take a little further but its very exciting and I want to thank Damian for taking the time to write about Hamanci as its opened up a world of possibilies for me. I only hope others have the same or similare experiences I have had. Its all good!!!!

Where did you install Hamachi? It needs to be installed on your WHS as well as whatever client PC you are trying to access the WHS console from. To make sure Hamachi is working properly on your Client PC can you access your shared WHS folders?

The PC that you are trying to use the Console with, I assume you already have the PC installed with the WHS connector software? All you need is Hamachi, but the client PC you are using needs to be part of your WHS network

If you want to access the WHS console on a PC that is not part of your WHS network then you would use LogMeIn Free and either remote into a PC that is part of the WHS console or rdp directly into your WHS (or of course just log in to your WHS homepage)

Thanks Damian. This is a great write up and it does open up a world of possibilities for me. I did run into some issues and I wanted to run them by you as they seem kind of strange.
1. I have installed Hamachi on my WHS by using RDP and it looks like it is working fine on my WHS as I can always see it.
2. When I tried to install Hamachi, by logging into logmein and clicking on add computer, it looks like it installed different softwares on my different pc’s. Not sure if I clicked on the wrong button or not, but the little console looked different. The instal file also had a different name like ‘Log me In.msi versus ‘Log Me In Hamachi’ or something like that. I uninstalled the other version and re-installed it from the file that had downloaded correctly on one of the clients. So, now all of them look like they have the same console.
3. For some reason, some of my clients always show as offline, even though when I go to that machine and launch hamachi, it says that it is online. I had to add these to my existing mesh network by clicking on request access using the network id and then I had to approve the request. Not sure if I did something wrong there.
4. When I am at work, I can view that my WHS is online (green). I am able to browse to the shared folders. But when I try to launch the console, the internet explorer page that opens up, says page not found. Not sure if there is a way to directly launch the console without going to the webpage first.

2. Sounds like you installed LogMeIn instead of LogMeIn Hamachi on some of your PCs. LogMeIn is just for remotely accessing your PC via the web interface (i.e. just as if you are rdp’ing in)

3. Each PC needs to be added to the mesh network. You should only have to do this once though

4. You can only access the WHS Console (not via the web) on a PC that has the WHS connector software installed on it. This would be a PC that is part of your network (so using a PC you have at work would not work). My laptop is set up on my home network, so that is why I can access the WHS console when I travel with my laptop.

Yes, it looks like I had installed the wrong software, which I fixed since then. Now all of my little consoles look the same. But the problem is that it almost looks like I have 2 networks or something like that. When I log into Hamachi’s website, I see that I only have 1 network and all my pc’s are on that network (2 windows 7 and 1 windows XP and my WHS). But when I log into the hamachi console from my work laptop, I can see that the WHS is online and available to browse, but not my home PC. Samething when I log in to the console from my WHS. I can see my work pc, but the home pc shows as offline. But when I log into my home pc’s hamachi console, it shows that it is connected to hamachi and my network, but it shows the other 2 (work pc and WHS) offline. I wanted to make sure that they were all on the same network and tried to add my home pc to the network again (using the network id) and I get a message that it is already part of that network. Not sure why it is different like this. Do you think I can only have 1 windows 7 pc on the network at any one point of time?
About accessing my WHS, I do have my work pc configured to access my WHS using the console as I have the connector software installed and I use it to connect to the console when I am at home. But on all my pc’s (including my work and home pc), when I click on the shortcut to Controlcenter, it opens up a webpage (almost similar to the remote access webpage) and the 1st option there is to launch the console. Is there a different way to directly launch the console without going to this webpage? The Website has a url like “http://mywhs/HPHome/”. So, when I was at work, this was the webpage that was not opening. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

I am also noticing something new since this evening. When I launch my WHS console, it launches in a window, which looks like a RDP window of its own and it once again has the icon to launch WHS Console on its desktop. Not sure if this is because of some recent firmware upgrade or if it is because I installed an add in called “Windows Home Server Program Launcher”. When I open this icon in this RDP window, then my actual console launches.

Another update from my side. I tried again today and I am able to launch the console while I am at work. So, it looks like that part works now. I still cannot figure out the 2 network thing though. When I launch the console from my work pc or my WHS, I can see the other one online, but I do not see my home pc online (it is grayed out). When I launch this from my home pc, I see both the other 2 as offline. If you have any thoughts or ideas or things that I should check, please let me know.

Hopefully the last update on this topic from my side. I uninstalled the Hamachi software on my home pc, removed it from the network, restarted and reinstalled Hamachi software and added it to the network again. Looks like that has resolved the issue for now. Thanks for all the instructions and help once again.

Real sorry it has taken this long for me to reply, just trying to get caught up on emails and comments. Glad to hear you got everything working, I was going to suggest doing a reinstall since it appears somewhere along the line the install got messed up.

this is a really helpful post. I was wondering if someone came across how to access an address over http with hamachi. It works find in the Windows File Explorer but cannot access my server for an application which I usually launch over internet explorer (e.g. http://192.168.1.1:8080/webui) even when i substitute the 192… address for the hamachi address.
Would be really grateful for help!
nb: the application is Adempiere installed on a linux server and I am accessing it via a Windows 7 client. It all works fine when I access my Samba file server.

Have you had any luck setting up? I only tested using a mesh network since that made the most sense for a simple home network. I would probably test everything out under the Gateway network first, and if that doesn’t get what you need test out using the Hub-and-Spoke

Not yet, but I think you’r right, it might be a port forwarding or traffic forwarding.
Our outside location had the router as gateway, we’ll need to change that so the gateway can be a server. That way all traffic will go through the server and filtered.

Another thing is how to make our outside lan be recognized by our work lan, but I’ll need to check that later. Maybe messing with routing, but I’d rather not…

Ok, I finally got an answer to my problems.
We can’t make a remote LAN part of our main work LAN with SSL connections, they must be done with IPSec.
Unless I’m mistaken hamachi doesn’t support IPSec.
I’ve been suggested using our own appliance and buy 2 DDNS for our remote networks. This should work for us.

Damian,
How are you backing up the two servers to each other? Are you just transferring the files you want saved offsite? I am trying to get the same thing going with my MSS and my brother in laws MSS. I already have Logmein Hamachi up and running on my MSS. My dad’s laptop backs up fine from his house to my MSS. I was hoping for the server to server backup would function like the server backup function built in to WHS.

Right now I had just been doing the old school transfer via windows explorer. Not ideal but I have only had to do a few files (the first big backup I actually did manually by transferring hard drives back and forth). There are sync programs (such as RoboCopy) that I have been meaning to look in to but just haven’t had a chance to follow up on. I am hopeful that down the road we will see an add in that will provide the server to server backup function that we are looking for.

Hey Damian. I’m hoping you can help me. I’ve spent 6 HOURS trying to get Hamachi to work. Anyway, I installed it as a Gateway on a an XP Home PC and am trying to use Windows 7 laptops to access the XP Home machine. I can ping and chat but can NOT access ANY XP files. I have all green lights, online comments, etc. It looks like everything is connected but it’s not. I have tried to do ALL kinds of things to get it to work. My gateway XP PC is connected to my router and my laptops are connected to the router via a wireless network. Any ideas on why I can’t browse the Gateway XP PC? Just ask for whatever info you need and I will give it to you. You are the ONLY person I have come across who is actually trying to help us dummies out there! So thanks a lot!

Hi Damian – Excellent guide, and one of those wonderful projects I’d promised myself… supporting remote family members on my WHS. I’ve followed your guide and it’s almost working, but critically not:
- Hamachi installed on WHS, W7 Home Premium laptop (and both reinstalled to check)
- VPN operating (all green lights): From W7 I can ping WHS, and browse (from Hamachi app)
- From W7 WHStray: I can access the WHS console properly, and “Shared Folders”
- But critically, WHStray does not change colour or show me as online, so I can’t get to Backup

Any help appreciated. I’ve tried several things to solve (reinstall, firewalls off etc)… I’m not sure whether its a Hamachi issue, WHS, W7, or indeed Router and Port fwd (my understanding was Hamachi didn’t use any special ports). Is there any way to “force” WHStray to connect?

Hi dear friend here, i want to ask, the procedure for to use hamachi like vpn tunneling, fot hida my ip, and to take italy o switzerland ip, if is possible???
-There is a haw to tutorial, thank to all you for any answer, excuse for my wild english
dema2 dominican republic

Thanks for this post.
However I’m having real problems with this. I’ve installed Logmein Hamachi on two different pcs, set one of them as a hub on the hub & spoke network and the other as the spoke.

However when they are both installed and the software is showing on both PC’s i cannot access the hub from the spoke using \\hub etc.

It keeps coming up with \\HUB is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions etc.

I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled everything several times and I havent a clue why its not working (did I mention I’m completely uselss with networking which is why I chose this logmein idiots guide to VPN )

Thanks for this, but i’m after a VPN connection that is always on.
I have friend dotted around the country that use my PC whenever its on as I have files etc they want to connect to…. please note I am not after a remote desktop connection because I have personal things on myPC that I do not want shared.

It’s really annoying because I cant figure out why I cannot browse as I can chat and ping other pcs and they can to me fine…. just the browse doesnt seem to work!

Ive allowed logmein via firewall and changed the network to Home as have all the pcs I have allowed access to. I am using he HUB and spoke network…

Can anyone think of anything else that can help me?
Really appreciate if you can!

Hello
I have a simple concern and i wanted to know if this VPN can be used for the same.
I use satellite connection for internet where i am staying and is quite slow however at my parents place we have high speed internet connection,
Now here is my question,
Is there any way that i can use this Hamachi VPN service to get faster connection on my laptop from my parents computer?
if yes, please explain how
Thanks…

@ Chandon ~ Your speed will be limited to the speed of your local connection. The only time the speed will be affected if you connect to a slower network on the other end then your speed will be reduced while connected.

I set up Hamachi, and every client light is green, This is a “MESH” network.
I can ping, and i can browse from on computer but i cant do it back. Not sure what the issue is, I also cant do “remote desktop” all computers allow it. No firewalls. I need this for remote desktop and transferring files. to each other.
Please help!!